Getting creative in Killeshandra

Fifth and Sixth class students from Killeshandra National School were honoured with the Creative Pioneers Award in the All-Island Junior Entrepreneur Awards, for their JEP business ‘ALG Holders’. The project was one of just 12 category winners out of over 200 projects submitted.

“It is a huge honour and achievement for our pupils. They are absolutely thrilled to accept the ‘Creative Pioneers’ Award this year in recognition of all their hard work,” said principal Gwenda Richardson. The initiative is a real-life, immersive entrepreneurship skills programme for fifth and sixth class primary school children. It aims to nurture confidence, resilience, creativity, problem-solving skills, and teamwork and engaging pupils of all abilities.

Challenged to develop a classroom business, one of the Killeshandra students showed great marketing prowess by “spotting a gap in the market”, Ms Richardson says: “One child in the group saw that their grandad never had a proper holder to put his phone into and thought this might be a solution to the problem. They then decided to make their product multi-functional and have the opposite side for placing an iPad in.”

The class set about designing an innovative phone and iPad holder made from wood. The compact holders are handmade and can be personalised with an inspirational quote or company logo.

“We enlisted the help of two of the children’s dads who helped to cut out the timber holders. We really appreciate the help they gave us because, without them and their expertise, we would not have been able to make such a high-quality product,” said the principal.

Besides these volunteers, many others supported the students in making a successfull product.

School secretary Caroline Comiskey helped the students to get creative with the ‘Cricut’ machine to personalise the holders.

The class launched a marketing campaign and sold 250 products, making a fantastic profit of almost €1,400. The children generously treated everyone in the school to ice cream to thank them for their support and shared the balance of profits among the class.

Ms Richardson is hopeful that the experience will help the children to "realise that they have the potential and capabilities to be successful entrepreneurs in the future".